Monday, 14 February 2011

Happy Valentines Day all! It's only right I review some red coloured truffles on a day like today :D

If you were reading the site at the back end of last year, you may remember that I wrote a review on some Espresso truffles made by a company called Booja-Booja. Those truffles were gifted to me by a work colleague who has an intolerance to dairy products, and she claimed that they were the best chocolates around for people with her dietary restrictions (See the review HERE). Well they turned out to be pretty good, and one very positive write up later I was approached by Booja-Booja via twitter to see if I would like to try some more of their range!? Of course I had no second thoughts about this, and just a few days later I found myself testing out a sample of their Raspberry fresh truffles.

You may be thinking that the packaging shot of todays review is a little on the small side, but I have purposely done this to give you some sense of scale. The box these truffles arrived in was tiny, though it contained 100.0g of product and eight inner truffles - perhaps the company ethos stretches as far as responsible packaging too? The smallness of the box made the on-pack details that little bit more hard to read, and the truffles lacked the miniature paper cup cake holders (making them more messy), but the presentation was still on the whole pretty good. Opening the box up I was pleased with the daintiness of the opening mechanism, however I was a little disappointed that the truffles only offered a meagre set of cocoa scents.

Wasting little time it wasn't long after opening these truffles that I dug straight in. Just as with the Espresso chocolates I tried in December these Raspberry truffles were coated with a thick layer of cocoa powder that straight away created a dry texture sensation in my mouth. Letting the piece melt on my tongue the truffle very quickly got up to temperature and it wasn't long before I was being treated to a glorious cooling sensation as the middle constituents began to melt. After lavishing in the full on texture party being created by the truffle the next immediate thing of note were the delicious flavours and subsequent taste that was developing. As established by the cocoa powder exterior, a raw chocolateyness was an ever present, delivering the oh so ever important chocolate flavour hit. However, in truth the chocolate was the back burner of the experience, as it was the explosion of rich, earthy red fruit berry tones that really grabbed hold of my attention. The taste created was fresh, real and even ended with a terrific hint of coconut to further develop the flavour journey that extra step further.

Overall it does appear that I have stumbled across a brand with a winning combination of good ethics and fantastic chocolates. To be totally honest with you these weren't THE BEST truffles I have ever tried in my life, but at the same time they were very very good. In my last Booja-Booja review readers questioned the legitimacy of Booja-Booja's award winning claims. After doing a little research (via the leaflet they sent me haha!) I can confirm that several of their range won awards in the 'Natural & Organic Awards 2008' (these Raspberry ones won 'Best Organic Food Product!). After tasting these I can only add my own big seal of approval - these were some exceptional fruity truffles that I cherished from the very first to the last one in the pack. I'm not saying the raspberry flavouring will be to every ones taste, but for those that fancy these I can offer nothing but my glowing recommendation. Booja-Booja are going to be a brand to watch out for in 2011, I got a feeling there are great things to come for these guys.